
Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb
Small states are weak militarily so that they rapidly become vassals. The Ottomans were (until the end) unintrusive, just wanted payments. Pax Ottomana: like a mafia don you pay the piso & get order. Some like Anc. Egypt/Ming China/Czarist Russia were centralizers. 3/n — PolitiTweet.org